Mindful Healing: Unveiling Somatic Therapy in Sacramento
Mindful healing and somatic therapy in Sacramento aren’t just buzzwords—they're your toolbox for navigating stress, anxiety, depression, and trauma with a little more grace and significantly less pressure. Embarking on mindful somatic therapy goes beyond talking through your worries; it's delving into the intricate connection between your mind and body. In the busyness of daily adulting, mindfulness-based therapy will teach you to become a compassionate student of your own nervous system and embrace calm.
Embarking on a Mindful Journey: What Sets Somatic Therapy Apart
The principles of mindful somatic therapy differ from traditional talk-only approaches because it includes your physiology and emotions, as well as your thoughts and behaviors into the treatment. When stressful sh*t happens, it doesn’t only impact you on an intellectual or emotional level, it often impacts a sense of stability in yourself, your relationships, and the future. Chronic stress and trauma lives in our physiology, and mindful somatic therapy approaches focus on the feedback loop that continually runs through our minds and bodies, where amazing transformations can occur.
Meet Your Guide to Mindful Healing: A Trusted Therapist in Sacramento
Mindfulness is the practice of paying attention in the present moment without attaching to it or judging it. Through both my professional training and my personal mindfulness practice, I’ve experienced so much more self-empowerment in my daily life with this whole new set of tools. When I practice being aware of my physical sensations, emotions, thoughts, and actions in the present moment, I can gather a lot of information about myself and my immediate wants and needs. Also, this awareness allows me to take the time and space to make conscious choices that support my well-being, as opposed to reacting from a place of overwhelm or uncertainty.
Mindfulness practices can be fun too! While meditation is well-studied and has been shown to markedly support nervous system and mood regulation, I get that it’s not for everyone. You don’t have to sit still for 30 minutes in a meditation pose to practice mindfulness, there are many ways to be self-aware while moving through your day.
I have a daily “"mindful moment” practice that I’ve dubbed my “microcosm of joy” because it often evokes feelings of awe, curiosity, amusement, and gratitude. I zoom into the details of life to notice a transitional moment of humor, sweetness, or wonder that unfolds as I go about my tasks. Sometimes my microcosm of joy happens naturally out in the world and sometimes I have to make a conscious effort to go searching for it. For instance, I’ll notice the trees and sun streaming through my window creating a cool pattern of shadows and light dancing on the wall, or perhaps I’ll see that my office plant has a sprout bursting through the dirt, or feel vicarious joy from watching someone loudly singing as they walk down the street while grooving to the music.
You can practice mindfulness by slowing down and hitting the pause button in life to notice your microcosm moments too. Pay attention to your emotional responses of the moment as well as your physical and sensory experiences. Learning to become more aware of the small details in the moment can change your perspective and your mood.
Mindful Somatic Therapy Techniques Demystified
Anxiety and chronic stress are so ubiquitous in our daily lives, so having a toolbox of skills to help in the moment can provide relief as well as confidence and a sense of control. For many people, the nervous system is chronically dysregulated as the result of prolonged periods of stress, unresolved trauma, grief, or chronic illness. An under-active, dysregulated nervous system can show up as depression symptoms too.
The treatment methods that I use in my Sacramento therapy office combines mindful awareness, insight-oriented exploration, and embodied techniques to help my clients reclaim the connection between their mind and body. Somatic experiencing therapy is a gentle approach that can help you to tap into your emotions and body sensations at your pace to access a deeper level of healing, increase insight, and create a more balanced way of living. Mindful somatic therapy techniques include breathing skills, thoughts and narratives exploration, slow and gentle movements, visualizations and other sensory experiential skills, and active imagination approaches.
One such technique developed by Peter Levine, PhD, founder of Somatic Experiencing Therapy, is called “Voo breathing,” and helps to stimulate our “rest and digest” parasympathetic nervous system. This can seem weird and may feel strange at first, but there’s science behind why this works!
Diaphragmatic breathing, also called belly breathing, stimulates both the sympathetic (fight, flight, freeze) and the parasympathetic (rest and digest) nervous systems. Belly breathing can help generally stressed out or anxious folks as well as trauma survivors to slow down and regulate breathing while also giving your mind something to focus on. For folks that are shut down or depressed, the Voo breathing technique can help to stimulate the nervous system to feel a bit more energy.
Begin the breath with a slow inhale through the nose, filling up your diaphragm and not your chest, followed by a slow exhale while saying the word Voo in a low tone of voice. Feel the Voo sound vibrate and rumble from your throat down into your torso, resonating with the tone like a foghorn. The Voo breathing also stimulates the vagus nerve, which activates the parasympathetic nervous system even more. After two to three Voo breaths, stop and pay attention to any shifts in your physical sensations, breathing patterns, and emotions before your repeat.
Another mindfulness technique for regulating the nervous system is called the butterfly hug, consisting of crossing your arms over your chest like you’re hugging yourself. Then with your fingertips at each collarbone, begin rhythmically tapping your hands like the wings of a butterfly on your chest, alternating right and left, in a slow and consistent manner. This bilateral stimulation technique developed by EMDR therapists Lucina (Lucy) Artigas and Ignacio Jarero, activates the right and left brain hemispheres (feeling and thinking) to communicate and work together. Alternatives to the butterfly hug include slowly tapping the palms of your hands on your thighs with a consistent right and left rhythm while in a seated position, or raising and lowering your toes and heels in a pedaling motion on the floor. Try adding belly breathing to give your mind something to focus on while regulating your breathing.
Another mindful somatic therapy technique to encourage settling and nervous system regulation is to remind yourself of what it’s like when you’re not in a stressed out, panicked, or traumatized state. Recall a time when you felt most like yourself, or the person you would like to be more of the time - it can be an important life event or just a simple moment when you were being silly, feeling really connected to someone you care about, or doing something you love like cooking, hiking, or drawing. Aim for a more recent time when you experienced a greater sense of being grounded and feeling more comfortable in your own skin. As you remember this time, visualize the details of the scene, almost as if it’s happening again. Pay special attention to your sensory experiences by noticing the light, the sounds, temperature, touch sensations, and any smells or tastes. While you are remembering this scene, gently shift your attention to notice your physical sensations and emotions now in the moment, and focus on what feels pleasant (or neutral if you can’t get to pleasant). Without trying to hang onto it or change it, notice if the sensations expand, intensify, change direction, or transform without your efforts to change it. This technique is a way to embody a pleasant memory when you felt connected to yourself and more in control.
Real Results from Mindful Somatic Therapy in Sacramento
Most of my clients are stressed out professionals looking for life hacks to decrease stress and find the “magic formula” to feel-good adulting. Once my clients figure out that I unfortunately don’t have a magic formula for a stress-free life, they don’t give up, they become empowered through learning how to recognize it in their body, emotions, and actions, and then thoughtfully respond to it.
Adulting doesn’t get easier by comparing yourself to others, or by pushing yourself harder, or by denying or minimizing your challenges and distress. It gets easier by investing in yourself through professional and compassionate support as you practice self-awareness, increase insight, process through trauma, and change enduring patterns - whether it’s in your nervous system or your relationships with partners, work, family, substances, shopping, or perfectionism.
The Healing Space: Your Sanctuary for Mindful Therapy in Sacramento
Whether your counseling appointment is online from anywhere in California or in-person at my Sacramento therapy office, I view our time together as a sacred investment in you. I imagine my office and myself as a virtual and physical container of sorts, where I hold all your thoughts, feelings, curiosities, actions, and explorations in a confidential and caring place. My goal is to create a supportive, nurturing, comfortable, and safe-enough environment so you can feel heard, seen, and understood without judgment. Your stress, worries, pain, questions, and fears will be held in the container that is myself and our therapy time, so that you don't have to carry it by yourself.
If you come meet with me in person, you’ll have the opportunity to take a walk along the American River Parkway trail that sits next to my Sacramento therapy office. You can even see the Guy West Bridge that links University Avenue with Sac State from my second story office window. The neighborhood is filled with trees, squirrels, Campus Commons residents, college students, and lots of wild turkeys.
Unlock Your Serenity: Schedule Your Mindful Healing Session Today
Ready to experience the transformative power of mindful somatic therapy in Sacramento? Schedule your free 15-minute video consultation with me today and I’ll answer any questions you have to see if I’m a good fit for you. If we don’t hit it off, I’ll do my best to give you referrals to someone who may better meet your needs. Check out my calendar on my Contact page here.
You deserve the time, space, and support you’ve been longing for, embark on your healing journey today!